We reported earlier this week that Tesla is allegedly working on a Model Q that is smaller and less expensive than the current Model 3. It’s supposed to go on sale in the spring of next year. It’s supposed to, with incentives, be under $30,000. It’s also supposedly going to use 50% fewer components than the current Model 3 and Model Y.
I’d like to postulate that it’ll actually use 100% fewer components because I don’t think it’ll ever exist.
Let’s skip over other things Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his minions have promised in the past and haven’t delivered on, and just focus on this particular car and the timing of it all.
Tesla’s big fall debut was the Robocab and Robovan “autonomous” vehicles. That was a large dog and pony show reveal with millions of dollars spent. For a series of vehicles that is still a few years out, it was quite the event. But for a vehicle that is revolutionary in its pricing using state-of-the-art manufacturing to be affordable to the masses, Tesla just drops it on an analyst report?
That seems as the kids would say, sus.
Next, let’s talk about the name of the model itself. It’s the “Q.” In the Tesla investing community, #TESLAQ is the hashtag for short selling and being critical of Musk and the stock price. Musk has always trolled short sellers, introducing “Short Shorts” in the past, and going after large short sellers and critics on his social media platform Twitter. He just recently mocked short-sellers right before the news of the Q was published.
News of the Model Q did drive the stock price up, which undoubtedly hurt the short-sellers he hates so much. That alone, at least to Musk, would be reason enough to risk the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Surely stock manipulation is illegal, right?”
It should be, but Elon Musk has long gotten away with it, and don’t call me Shirley.
That alone should make you suspect that this vehicle is the real deal, but let’s take a look at the potential pricing. To get to the quoted potential price of this new car, it’d require tax incentives. Those federal tax incentives are exactly what Musk is targeting as co-captain of the totally real Department of Government Efficiency. Why on Earth would Musk build something dependent on something he’s actively trying to get rid of? Is he that much of a masochist?
Don’t answer that.
We were promised a Roadster 2.0 with thrusters. We were promised a million robotaxis by the end of 2020. We were promised a fully-autonomous vehicle that could drive all the way across the country last decade. We were promised that Musk had the funds to take Tesla private at $420 a share when the stock was way less than that.
The Tesla Model Q is just another promise that Musk has no intention of delivering on, especially in the next four or more years while he’s trying to manipulate the government.
